Bits and Pieces
by CoolnRainy
Summary: The timing of this vignette could probably be right at the beginning of the first movie, before Afghanistan ... Just a small insight into each Tony's and Pepper's minds and how they regard each other. And then some more from IM1 ...
1. Chapter 1: The Personal Assistant

**A/N:** So Iron Man 3 made me happy :-) So I rewatched the others and I was kind of struck by the obvious contrast in the relationship between Tony and Pepper, which inspired this small description of the way they regarded each other before. The timing of this vignette could probably be right at the beginning of the first movie, before Afghanistan ... Just a small insight into each of their minds regarding the other. Hope you like it!

**Bits and Pieces**

Pepper Potts had been Tony Stark's personal assistant for somewhere around a decade. That was a long time to keep a job that may on the surface sound as though it had no future. But it was her life. Taking care of Tony Stark was one hell of a skill, and she had perfected it.

She knew everything there was to know about her boss, and he knew it. In fact, he encouraged it. Secrets did not exist between them. She knew what meals gave him a stomach ache, his favourite brand of coffee, the people he detested shaking hands with, his favourite songs, the fact that he had created an AI out of intellectual loneliness. She knew where he was at any time. She knew what he was working on. She knew what parties he crashed. She knew every woman he slept with. She knew how much he was worth to the last dollar each day. She probably knew more about the inner workings of his company than he did.

She was the famous Pepper Potts.

It was difficult to pinpoint the moment she and Mr Anthony Edward Stark had become friends, but she supposed it had been almost inevitable. She was with him all day every day. They were of similar ages. They got along. But either way, she would never be able to say when it had happened.

Maybe there had been a moment where they had shared a secret smile at something funny. Maybe one of those times where Tony ate only in her company while teasingly asking her inappropriately personal questions. Maybe she had been expressing admiration towards one of the contraptions he had shown her. Maybe during a bickering session where she entirely lost her temper. Maybe it was all of those things. But as the years went by, it became clear that a bond had formed between them. A bond that remained as professional as it did indestructible.

Similarly, she wouldn't be able to voice when they had started to refer to each other by their first names. She couldn't remember. It had been that way for a long time now. If she'd had to guess, she would have said that he must have done it first, because she was the one who maintained their professional relationship. She wasn't sure when she had caved and done it too. He can't have asked her to ... That she would have remembered. It must have simply happened.

Not that it was the norm. They would fluctuate between formal and informal in their own rhythm. One that neither of them questioned or really thought about. There was a feeling that called for formal. There was an altogether different feeling that called for informal. She would never be able to give an indication of what those feelings were.

But one thing that had always been clear was that that was private. At no point in front of others (except perhaps Obadiah or Rhodey) did they refer to each other as anything other than "Mr Stark" and "Ms Potts". It was almost as though they had two separate relationships. One of the boss and the personal assistant, and one of friendship. And the friendship was personal.

So no matter how any interaction between them went, they had to return to the professional as their default. Which was why Pepper would always call him Mr Stark at the end of a conversation, and he would always call her Ms Potts when she did. He took her lead, and she was grateful.

_"Will that be all, Mr Stark?"_

_"That will be all, Ms Potts."_

Never forget who we are. You are the billionaire CEO of Stark Industries, and I am the personal assistant.

x x x

Life without Pepper Potts was not a conceivable one for Tony Stark. Not that it was something he ever considered, because she was such an integral part of his existence. He hadn't gone a day without seeing her or talking to her in ten years (or something like that). She was always there, efficient, capable, loyal. A friend.

He would have hated to admit how much he relied on her if not for the fact that he was proud to have her. He could brag to anybody who asked. Your personal assistant worked for the president? That's great. I have Pepper Potts. The best PA in existence. I wouldn't survive without her. Because I'm Tony Stark, and I have so much going on in my life that I need the best. And you'll never have her, because she's mine. Ha.

Pepper Potts could appear at his side at any place or any time of day (which she did), and he never didn't want her there. She was usually yammering on about his schedule, or whatever, which was fine. But it was that sense of having her around that made him feel secure. Taken care of. He liked it. And he liked her, too. The affection and trust he felt for the ever present Ms Potts had grown steadily over the years, and was unmatched by a single soul in his life.

She was one of the precious few people he considered a friend. And considering he trusted her far above any of the others, he could probably openly admit that she was his best friend if it weren't an inappropriate sentiment. It was an odd kind of relationship, it was true, but Tony didn't care. He wasn't exactly mainstream. So if his best friend happened to be his personal assistant, then that was his business.

And if he and his best friend had to act as though they were not in fact friends at all, then so be it. It worked for them. Even the formal way they addressed each other. Even if she insisted on ending every conversation with quiet professionalism.

_"Will that be all, Mr Stark?"_

_"That will be all, Ms Potts."_

He liked it that way. He liked Pepper Potts, and she liked him too. It was a quiet unspoken agreement between them that they accepted.

And if he sometimes suspected he might be falling in love with her, he could keep that to himself too.

x x x

**A/N:** Thanks for reading :-) Let me know if you liked it ... I could probably write a couple more like this for different points in the movies if people are interested.


	2. Chapter 2: Afghanistan

**A/N:** Thanks for your reviews, I really appreciate them :-)

Afghanistan

His captivity in Afghanistan was horrible for all the obvious reasons. He had shrapnel in his heart after a bomb blast. He needed an electromagnet imbedded in his flesh to keep him alive. He was expected to build a missile for a terrorist group. He would likely be killed there. It was uncomfortable. Dirty. He was starving much of the time. He was living in a way he had never been close to experiencing, having lived in luxury all his life. He was trapped. He was afraid.

The smaller, more subtle things would permeate his mind over time. Things like no clean clothes. Or longing for a hamburger. The freedom to drive far and fast in one of his sports cars. Missing the sensation of a hot shower. No Jarvis at his every command. No coffee. None of his music. No schedule to ignore.

No presence of a certain Ms Pepper Potts.

In the beginning, the thoughts that went through his head regarding her were closer to worry. Worry that she would think him dead. But as time passed, he realised he missed her sorely. For God's sake, he had barely ever been away from her for as long as twenty four hours, and now weeks were passing without her. He felt unsafe and frightened enough already. It made everything so much more difficult without her comforting presence.

There was a moment when Yensin asked him if he had a family. Tony had hesitated as he thought of what was waiting for him at home. He had Obadiah. He had Rhodey He had Jarvis. And he had Pepper. But he had never allowed thoughts of … _family_ … So he had replied, "No." Yensin had gently observed that he was a man who had everything and nothing.

But Tony didn't consider any of them _nothing_. He had people waiting for him. Perhaps it was time he allowed them, those he missed, in. Beyond the boundary of what made him different. He missed his home, his AI, his PA … Sorely, he missed them.

But he would get out of there. Day after day, he fought to get out. He would survive and go home. That was the plan; that was the deal. And, forcing aside those miserable lost feelings that surfaced nightly in his dreams, he threw every ounce of his brilliant mind into the task at hand.

Survival.

So when, after three long painful months, he was rescued and returned home, the sight of Pepper Potts neatly waiting for him on the tarmac as though nothing was abnormal was the thing that finally cinched the feeling of being safe again. Being home.

He slowly exited the plane, dismissively waving off the waiting paramedics. His eyes were fixed only on her as he slowly, yet eagerly approached where she was standing. Savouring her presence. When, at long last, he drew level with her, he almost didn't know how to react. She was clean, elegantly dressed and immaculate as usual, standing formally before him. Her eyes, however, shone with relief and tears.

He would never be able to tell her the pure relief it was to have her by his side once more.

He would never be able to tell her how much he had missed her.

After all, he could barely understand it himself.

x x x

They were hateful months, months of not knowing if he was alive, months where her world had involuted into one of dark and empty confusion. In fact, looking back on them was sort of like looking back on a bad dream. The sick fear was as vivid in her memory as the experience, but the details blurred away into a single background image of heartache.

She barely knew what she had been doing with the time. She screwed up her mind in an attempt to see the details better, but there was little she could elicit. As far as she could recall, she had spent much of it floating around in a ghostly state, doing things, always _doing_ things … Obadiah gave her plenty to do. But the doing was robotic, while her heart proceeded to crumble just a little more every day.

She didn't like her job at all. Without Tony there, it was dreary. Without Tony in her life, living was meaningless. She felt as though she had lost her very purpose for being. Which was more or less true, really, because when last had her purpose not been to take care of him?

Eventually the strain of his absence where he had always been present became too much to handle. She finally quit and retired to her solitude. Began to peek at the horrible possibility that he might truly never come home. That he might be …

At this point in her memory, she really only remembered profound blackness, which had swelled like a giant tarry bubble over her life. She descended into nothing and cried.

About a week later, she got the news that Tony Stark, her everything, was still in existence. It was funny how she only truly realised what he was to her when she no longer had him there. It was like being given fresh air again after months of inhaling smoke. She was refreshed, renewed … painstakingly relieved.

In fact, the relief was so painful that simply seeing him smirk at her as he sauntered across the tarmac in her direction that, for the first time in her life, she had been unable to fight the tears that leapt to her eyes. They didn't leak out, but they burned.

How she had ached for him. How her very identity had longed for him. But other than giving him the warmest smile she had produced in far too long, she had no ability to tell him. It was all right, though. She was pretty sure he knew, somewhere in there.

For now, her reality had been restored. She was Pepper Potts, Tony Stark's personal assistant once more.

x x x

**A/N: **Thanks so much for reading, I'd love to hear what you think :-)


	3. Chapter 3: Only You

**Only You**

_"**I don't have anyone but you."**_

Well, it was true, he thought defensively to himself. He wasn't sure what had possessed him to say it out loud, all right, but it was the truth.

All this time, all these years, if at any point he needed to turn to someone for any reason whatsoever, it was to Pepper. It was why he trusted her so much. He trusted that she cared for him, that she would always look out for him. She had proved it to him over many years. That certain trust was alien to him otherwise. It was only with her. It made him feel safe.

Coming home from imprisonment enhanced that sensation fairly significantly, mainly in that the warmth of her safety was addictive after such cold terror. And now, with his world turning upside down, his friends, his admirers, his customers all discounting him, thinking him a complete lunatic … At this moment, he was being treated rather like a child who had just woken up from a nightmare and was acting all hysterical. People were patting him indulgently on the back and saying soothing things, or telling him to be quiet until he felt better, or avoiding talking to him at all.

Yeah, who else did he have? Now with his world turning upside down, she was the one person he had left. The one person who looked at him as she always had, trusted him as she always had, stood by him as she always had …

Always there. Warm. Safe.

x x x

It was oddly gratifying to hear him say it. And wholly unexpected.

It wasn't that she didn't know she meant a lot to him. He made it clear enough without ever having to _say_ anything. Much as she was certain he knew how much she cared for him without her ever saying anything. Saying as much wasn't really in keeping with the unspoken professional contract between them.

The nature of his sentiment did surprise her, however. It was sort of stronger, sort of more meaningful than she had suspected all this time. He was looking at her all earnest like, affection in his eyes. She had responded with an uncertain silence, probably looking as moved as she was feeling.

Because the very fact that he had said it at all confirmed the sentiment. He rarely said things he didn't mean, even less so with her, and never anything about how he cared. Yes, she was touched and flattered and wrestling a great rush of emotion inside her chest. It was a fiery kind of protectiveness as he lay there before her, looking slightly vulnerable, the hateful words of his numerous critics ringing in her ears.

Yes, she would stand by him as long as he needed her.

She was all he had.

x x x

_"**You're all I have too, you know."**_

She mumbled it at him. In the moment, she had to say it. She had to tell him. He absolutely had to know that her threat to quit a minute before had not been out of any desire to leave him, but out of a desire to stop him from getting hurt. From getting killed. Already she had experienced the horror of thinking him dead, of losing him. Facing that thought a second time was decidedly frightening.

As for the truth behind the words … Well, as she had finally acknowledged during his absence, he _was _all she had. Without him, she had felt so desperately lost and isolated, she had barely been able to live with herself. Over the past decade or so, her life had steadily shrunk down to a point where it was revolving entirely around him. She thought she should be ashamed, should pull back and find more to live for … She really should. But she couldn't.

It was difficult to explain, but there seemed to be a certain plane of existence that they found together. It wasn't rosy or dramatic or ideal. It was just slightly separated from the existence of the rest of the world. It also wasn't necessarily better or anything … But there they resided, and without each other, that plane was deserted, echoey, bland.

She supposed it was good that he knew that she knew that.

x x x

Her threat to quit hurt. A hell of a lot.

He felt loosely as though he had been suddenly dissociated from his world. He pulled out all the stops to make her understand that he was not a nut job or anything, he was just different from before. _Better _than before. He even mentioned what he knew in his heart, the heart that only she seemed to believe he had. It worked, thankfully. The minute of fright was over.

It would have left him a touch more shaken up had she not murmured the words before slipping out. The words that made him smile slightly to himself as the warmth and safety of her presence washed over him again. Of course, she was only looking to protect him, as always. It was all probably far too much on the co-dependence side of things, he supposed, but it was too late to do anything about that now. If they depended on each other, then it had worked remarkably well so far.

The _point_, he told himself, was that she had said it. She had blatantly disregarded their professional barrier in order to tell him what he meant to her. Pepper showed plenty through her actions, but never, not once, had she actually said a truly sentimental word to him. As he hadn't either. Well, except that once. The once that she was responding to.

They really only had each other.

Well … so then they would always protect each other.

x x x

**A/N:** Thanks so much for reading. Let me know what you think :-)


	4. Chapter 4: Dancing

**A/N:** Thanks again for reviewing this story :-) It's much appreciated!

**Dancing**

It was all entirely his fault. She hadn't even expected him to show up.

Generally speaking, she wasn't a huge fan of surprises, but she had grown used to them with Tony. So used to them, in fact, that even the unexpected became predictable. But things had been different since his return. He was different and she no longer understood what was going on in his head.

She stuck by him, though. He was still Tony, just Tony striding in a different direction. The only problem was that he had sort of left her back on the other route, so she was still scurrying to catch up with him. She had faith she would, though. She didn't like to be arrogant, but she knew he would want her to catch up, and would eventually stop and wait if necessary.

However, the result of all this was that she had no way of predicting his next move. On the whole, he had become somewhat of a recluse lately, barely talking to anyone at all. But suddenly, out of nowhere, he had shown up at this charity event crammed full of guests, members of his company and the press.

And then he had made her dance with him.

It wasn't really the dance that distressed her so much. Sure, she had been embarrassed and slightly annoyed from the get-go, but that was nothing new. What was new was how he was staring at her. She didn't think she had ever seen him look at anything like that. It was like a really concentrated form of every affectionate glance he had ever given her. It made her heart rate pick up, her cheeks flush and her eyes flicker nervously away from his.

It was stirring them up. Stirring up the feelings she had resolutely kept in check for a long time. Ever since the day, several years before, that she had realised in horror that she was falling in love with him. It sounded dramatic, but it actually wasn't such a big deal for her. Not anymore. After the initial shock, she had managed to negotiate her feelings back into complacency, mainly by sternly informing them that they were a lost cause.

It worked, for the most part. She had splendid self-control. And other than the odd moment here and there where a gentle affection would flutter down between her and her boss, causing the feelings to perk up slightly, she remained in control.

Tonight she was losing control of herself, something she was loathe to do.

She tried to regain it by remonstrating him on the roof for his behaviour. It started off well enough despite his protests, but then he had begun to stare at her like that again, and she had sort of lost track of what she was saying. The next second, for some reason she could barely understand, she had moved forward to kiss him.

All it took was the moment of his hesitation to bring her back to earth, and she pulled back, staring blankly at him. Her brain buzzed uselessly.

It was all his fault. The least he could do was get her a drink.

x x x

He didn't know what it was about seeing her in that dress, her hair all agleam and cascading all over the place, in a crowd of people who became even more meaningless to him than before, that triggered it. Yet, that dormant maybe-in-love-with-Pepper part of his heart suddenly leapt into action at long last, as though electrocuted. And it took over control with impressive speed.

He didn't know what was going through his mind as he pulled her out to dance with him, to hold her, to stare at her with barely a blink. He couldn't stop staring. He couldn't stop studying her eyes, her deeply uncomfortable eyes … couldn't stop studying the smile that grew from exasperated self-consciousness at the scrutiny of the room to a deep secret embarrassment at the scrutiny of his eyes.

This ... This was something new. Different. Confusing. He had never, not once, stopped to question or analyse the bubble of feelings he had for Pepper. He suspected the nature of them, sure, but had never had the slightest inclination to follow up on them. Follow up wasn't his thing. Definitely not when it posed a threat to the most reliable thing in his life. But tonight, now, out of nowhere, the bubble had demanded his attention, and it was winning.

In all honesty, he barely cared what anyone else was thinking, barely cared that she was squirming uncomfortably in his grasp. He had been overcome by the need to have her close to him, not just physically, but in blurry other ways too. He also happened to have little room in his mind to reflect on how he was feeling and frankly, couldn't be bothered in the moment.

So, when he found himself up on the roof with her, his first response to her distress was flat out denial.

"It was totally harmless."

"We just danced."

"You're overstating it."

All a load of crap, really, as was demonstrated a moment later when she almost kissed him. Not only that, but, far more disturbingly, he almost kissed her back. However, it took a moment for him to unstick his startled body at her unexpected motion towards him, and that moment lost him the kiss. Just as he was about to lean forward, _surrender _really, to the confused mass of emotion in his chest, she pulled back and demanded a drink.

Feeling pretty shaken himself, this seemed like a reasonable request.

His head span as he went back to the bar. He still had no idea what he was thinking or what had happened. More to the point, he had less than no idea what would happen when he went back out there. What he was aware of, however, was that he certainly wanted to find out. There was a funny, sick, nervy anticipation boiling in his stomach when he thought of it.

Was it coincidence, then, that possibly the only thing that could have distracted him from the situation, managed to present itself in that moment?

x x x

**A/N: **Thanks so much for reading, let me know what you think :) Would you be interested in similar scenes from IM2?


	5. Chapter 5: The Girl

**A/N:** So, I've had this written for a while, but I kept holding back because I couldn't find inspiration to write from Pepper's POV here. I mean, I know it's obvious stuff, like she's scared of him dying and all that, but somehow I remain uninspired. So this last IM1 instalment is just Tony.

x x x

**The Girl**

Well, if one were to want to analyse the situation, he supposed Obadiah's main mistake had been to threaten Pepper. Main mistake, mind you. Tony had no patience for his former trusted business partner, and if anyone were to ask his opinion, he would happily have listed Obadiah's many errors, from the design of his own "superior" suit right down to the cut of his beard.

But there was no denying (to himself, anyway) that there had been a point where Tony had been more or less beaten. Paralysed and without his arc reactor to prevent his heart from being shredded by angry bits of metal, things had looked decidedly dire. His strength and willpower had faded along with his nervous system and for a few moments, he had simply assumed that this was it.

And he was enraged about it. Furious. His hatred and betrayal at Obadiah's smug face had consumed him and sorely frustrated him. He had no way out. But from the point where the unfortunate bald idiot had chosen to inform Tony that he planned to kill Pepper, something else had exploded inside him: Panic.

Panic was all he needed. It gave him determination. Somehow, he had managed to half-drag his semi-paralysed limbs to the elevator as his heart had begun to fail. White from his slowly decreasing circulation, from the crushing pain in his chest, from the quivering nausea that told him he was about to die, he had focussed as entirely as possible on gathering the last stores of his energy to the task at hand. And, against all odds, his jelly-like body had managed it.

Yeah, biggest mistake by far.

You don't threaten the girl.

Which, you know, kind of pointed out to him that Pepper was the girl. Okay, so that didn't sound all that romantic or anything, so maybe to put it another way, it made him realise exactly how much he cared for her. Made him realise that he cared for her more than for himself. Made him realise that maybe this love thing inside his heart was stronger than he thought.

Not that this immediately translated into the need for a relationship. It more evolved into a kind of confused impulsivity whenever he was around her. Made him stare more, think more, say more. She didn't take him seriously, though. He wasn't sure if that was a relief or a disappointment, but it didn't matter.

The point was that he had never had a girl. Just one girl, that is. Now he did, whether it was official or not. He had just come to realise that, of everyone and everything out there in the world, she was the important one. She stood out.

_She _was his girl.

x x x

**A/N:** Okay, so I am writing something on IM2, but it's going to be in a somewhat different format that doesn't quite fit in for this story. So I'll just publish it separately as a sort of sequel or something. So thanks to everyone for reading this, and a special thanks to my reviewers, I really appreciate it


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